NintyBuzz @ EGX 2014

It was an early Sunday morning, dew fresh on the ground and sleep encrusted upon my eyelids. There was no time to waste, as the final day of EGX lay ahead. Yes, we had the pleasure to attend one of the biggest gaming expos in the UK, full of various upcoming titles from many different developers for many different consoles, though of course, we mainly stayed in the Nintendo booth… scratch that, that was our home for the entire day!

Check out our full experience from the event after the break!

Unfortunately our cameraman had to cancel a couple months ago due to starting university so we weren’t able to record much footage [try not to hold too much of a grudge against him]… and when I say we I mean me! Though fret not, we still have much to show you.

One of the biggest parts of the Nintendo booth this year was the upcoming shooter hybrid, Splatoon. Now, to be honest, during E3 I wasn’t completely ecstatic about the title, I was shouting at my TV “oh come on, we’ve had enough of this, show us more Zelda, or Starfox” during the whole Live at the Treehouse stream, though after getting some hands on time with the game, I can now fully appreciate why they focused so much on it. To put it very simply… it was fricking fun!

The whole way Nintendo set up the Splatoon demo booths was absolutely brilliant. They had two queues leading to four stations per queue ready for a four on four turf war. The teams were appropriately named Team Splat and Team Toon, and the win/lose count was recorded to the end of each day [by the time I left, my team, Splat, was winning the mini tournament 29-24!] The aim of the game is simple, team up with your team mates to cover as much ground with your coloured paint before the timer reaches zero. Apparently walls do not count. The controls felt a bit strange at first, though this could just be due to my inexperience of shooters, however after a minute or so you do become acquainted to them and are very fluid. One very cool ability shown off at E3 is the power to transform into a squid which allows you to travel quicker, run up walls, and camouflage yourself in your ink from your opponents. After several plays, I quickly became a master of this ability. I would mark some territory in an enemy base, hide as a squid and wait for the perfect opportunity to bombard an unsuspecting enemy to certain death! Seeing how it was hard for me to leave the Splatoon station, it is clear that this will almost definitely be a day one buy for me. As we are only shown a small portion of the game, we can hope that there are many great things still shrouded in mystery by Nintendo.

While waiting to play various demos, I was quickly racking up StreetPass hits, must’ve received at least 100 hits… just goes to show that if your StreetPass Mii Plaza is like a Ghost Town, that can quickly be amended by a good old expo or convention! There were also several guests who invited me to their Smash Bros Demo Local games, many tears were shed… both of sadness and joy!

Now onto which was probably the most important part of the Nintendo experience at EGX, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U! Unfortunately the Wii U version was quite limited to who could play on it. Every hour Nintendo held tournament qualifiers on the Nintendo 3DS version, and whoever boded well during this stage was invited on stage to compete in hourly tournaments on the Wii U version, the grand prize being that swanky Smash Bros. Limited Edition 3DS XL console with Super Smash Bros. for 3DS pre-installed! Due to my awesome Smash Skills, I myself got invited onto the stage to compete.

When competing in the tournament, we were given Gamecube controllers to play. I decided to choose my favourite person in the world, Link! Unfortunately they didn’t have Dark Link, so I had to make do with Red Link. I have to say, the Wii U version, in my opinion, plays just as well as Melee, perhaps even better, only problem was, because I haven’t played Melee for such a long time, I forgot how to chuck items at your opponents, this cost me my victory… but I did receive a commemorative prize of this über cool Smash Bros. Dog Tag! Plus, Nintendo were awesome enough to bring two fantastic cosplayers onstage to battle it out for fun!

Awesome Rosalina Costume, unfortunately wasn’t able to get a good photo of Zero Suit Samus but will upload a video later!

Splatoon and Smash Bros. weren’t the only attractions though, Nintendo still had plenty of stalls for gamers to participate in. There was Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, Sonic Boom, Yoshi’s Wooly World, NES Remix 3DS, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Pokémon X and Y, Fantasy Life, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and a boatload of indie games. As well as games, they also held quizzes, hula-hoop tournaments and a Wheel of Swag to win some freebies. The booth was also complete with a section for the Nintendo Store UK which sold an EGX exclusive Mario Kart T-Shirt… unfortunately I only had six quid [British slang for £ pound] in my bank account so I couldn’t grab myself one 🙁

I have a slight confession to make. I may have been a bit too addicted to the Splatoon and Smash Bros. units, so unfortunately I am unable to document further on the other games. However, if Nintendo decides to show their wonderful faces at MCM Expo at the end of October, then you can bet your squid ink that we will be there document the games we missed… we’ll be more prepared too!

Before I finish off here, I would just like to thank all the guests who didn’t mind me filming and taking photos of them, and I would like send a special big thank you to all the representatives who were working so hard at the demo stations and on stage. All you guys were so brilliant and made my day at EGX 2014 several hoots and a half!

Did any of you attend EGX this year? If so what did you enjoy most? Tell us everything in the comments.

Here’s an image gallery of the whole event and several videos will follow this weekend!

Awesome Rosalina Costume, unfortunately wasn’t able to get a good photo of Zero Suit Samus but will upload a video later!

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I am a huge Nintendo fan, hence why NintyBuzz exists. I especially love all things Zelda and Metroid. NintyBuzz was started by me back in the Summer of 2014, it started out mainly as a hobby, though the site has gradually grown, and I hope it grows for many years to come!